This legendary horror author knows a thing or two about crafting terrifying moments. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most frightening scenes from Stephen King films.
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00:00I need for God's sake it's for the best welcome to watch mojo and today we're counting down our
00:09picks for the most frightening scenes from Stephen King films can he eat his way in here can he
00:16no number 20 here's johnny the shining then i'll huff and i'll puff and i'll blow your house
00:29in there are certain iconic visuals in movie history and jack's deranged face peering through
00:37the broken door is certainly one of them this comes at the climax of the film when jack torrance
00:42has descended fully into madness brought on by isolation addiction and lots and lots of ghosts
00:47he batters down the bathroom door with an axe while his poor wife cowers inside
00:51and when he peers through the opening he unleashes one of the best quotes in all of cinema here's
00:57johnny it is a frightening sequence not just on a visceral level but an emotional one families are
01:04meant to protect each other yet here the otherwise loving husband and father wants nothing more than
01:09their blood number 19 the paul bunyan statue it chapter 2 with a budget of 80 million dollars
01:19it chapter 2 was allowed to go big both figuratively and literally in one of the movie's
01:24flashback sequences young richie tozer takes a seat on a bench our guards are immediately lowered
01:30thanks to the bright daylight and the wide open public space scary things don't happen with that
01:34combination right very very wrong richie notices that the giant paul bunyan statue is curiously
01:40missing and when he turns he is greeted by the sentient decoration screaming right in his face
01:46it is a powerful jump scare and it's followed by one of the film's most ambitious frights
01:52that mouth is the thing of nightmares
02:05real number 18 moochie versus christine christine hey cunningham
02:16is that you cunningham the great thing about stephen king is that he can make even the goofiest
02:21ideas work like that of a possessed car king is actually not a fan of this film but it got good
02:27reviews and is now considered a cult classic and it's largely thanks to fun sequences like this
02:32moochie sees the red plymouth fury at the end of an alley and it proceeds to stalk him like a
02:37hungry predator then it pounces and the chase is on it's a memorable sequence that contains great
02:43tension a fun score and some imaginative photography and that is to say nothing of
02:48the amazing ending in which christine squeezes herself through a small opening to finally get her
02:53prey
03:04number 17 hatching spiders the mist won't be gone long just just next door spiders are a big nope
03:13things erupting out of human bodies are also a big nope combine the two and you have a scene that
03:19lives in infamy david and a small group leave the safety of the supermarket and go next door
03:24to the pharmacy hoping to acquire some much-needed medical supplies well they get a lot more than
03:29they bargained for inside the pharmacy are numerous humans trapped in giant spider webs
03:34that alone is scary enough but things take an even darker turn when one of the victims starts
03:39to shake and squirm the visuals speak for themselves and let's just say there are much
03:44better ways to go than this
03:53number 16 feeding snake bite andy dr sleep and she tastes
04:01like flowers a surprisingly worthy sequel to the shining dr sleep follows a now-grown danny torrance
04:08as he fights a cult known as the true knot this is a group of vampires who feed on a psychic
04:14essence known as steam which is released when someone with the shining is murdered
04:18in the movie's most uncomfortable sequence we see rose the hat feed the steam to snake bite andy
04:23in some kind of bizarre and somewhat sensual orientation the very idea of feeding someone
04:29a human soul is highly disturbing and rebecca ferguson sells it with enjoyable authority
04:44number 15 pennywise in the projector it
04:55the 2017 adaptation of king's beloved masterpiece borrowed the general concept of the story
05:00but crafted its own unique scares involving pennywise one of the better ideas was the
05:05projector scene which is a great combination of idea and execution the kids look at a map
05:10of dairy sewer system but the projector soon takes on a life of its own and cycles through
05:15a number of increasingly creepy photos pennywise appears in place of a red-haired woman and he soon
05:21bursts through the screen to chase the kids around the garage it is an effective jump scare brought
05:26about through great visual effects a fun idea and some fantastic lighting each flash to black
05:32brought us one step closer to a heart attack
05:45number 14 gauges return pet cemetery sometimes that is better
05:54you see louis what i'm getting at you understand judd crandall tells us that sometimes dead is
06:00better now we know what he means the titular pet cemetery is a magical place in which dead beings
06:06are brought back to life as zombie-like creatures in one of the most haunting scenes in the stephen
06:11king canon gauge is run over by a truck prompting his father louis to bury him in the cemetery
06:17gauge returns as a murderous figure killing both judd and his mother rachel everything about this
06:23is troubling the very idea of a zombie toddler is scary enough but king takes it one step further
06:29by having him wield a scalpel and commit matricide king claims that pet cemetery is
06:34his scariest novel and yeah we can see why oh okay engage i brought you something mommy
06:49number 13 removing the handcuffs gerald's game you look amazing thanks
07:00director mike flanagan took a shot at gerald's game a little-known stephen king novel published
07:05in 1992 carla gugino stars as jesse burlingame who is left handcuffed to a bed when her husband
07:11dies of a heart attack the movie is part survival thriller part psychological horror
07:16and it's mixed with one of the gnarliest things we've ever seen in a king movie finally at her
07:22wit's end jesse escapes from the handcuffs with the help of some sharp glass and lots of
07:26shall we say peeling it is absolutely disgusting brutal in its realism and use of convincing
07:33practical effects the whole thing makes us shudder like you wouldn't believe i'm writing this letter
07:38with my right hand nestled snug in its frictionless burn glove three skin grafts later it still doesn't
07:45work quite right number 12 death by cockroaches creep show i can't talk to you now george i'm
07:51gonna clear up this damn cockroach problem once and for all what some people may not know is that
07:57stephen king wrote the screenplay of creep show and it served as his professional screenwriting
08:02debut he teamed up with the legendary george a romero for an anthology of stories that harken
08:06back to classic horror comics of the 1950s one segment is called they're creeping up on you and
08:12it follows everyone's favorite creepy crawly the cockroach pratt tries to escape the multiplying
08:18critters in a sealed panic room but he finds to his horror and ours that they are already inside
08:24it's terrifically effective especially if you have an aversion to bugs
08:28which you know who doesn't i hope you die i hope you die
08:39number 11 t with mrs kirsch it chapter 2 but you know what they say about dairy
08:46no one who dies here ever really dies
08:52as most adults do when they visit their old stomping grounds beverly visits her childhood
08:57home and finds a sweet old lady named mrs kirsch living inside well not really surprise surprise
09:03this is not actually mrs kirsch but some kind of witch-like monster joan gregson is utterly
09:09spectacular in the role her odd mannerisms and distant predatory eyes informing us that something
09:14is terribly wrong in the old marsh house director andy muschietti then gets creative with the scene
09:19using deep shadow to hide kirsch in a doorway and distorting her voice before hitting us with a fun
09:24jump scare that is one which we do not want to mess with are you still his little girl beverly
09:35are you number 10 dragged by tentacles the mist hey i want to go it was my idea being
09:44a protagonist in stephen king's horror stories is difficult enough but let's take a moment to feel
09:49for the secondary characters who really have it rough as an unnatural mist rolls over a small
09:54town grocery store bag boy norm rises to the challenge bravely volunteering to venture
10:00outside and unblock a generator exhaust pipe norm what the needless to say he doesn't get very far
10:08what makes the scene so agonizing is how long it takes for norm to be dragged into the mist
10:13kicking and screaming to the bitter end
10:20number nine execution gone wrong the green mile roll on one the green mile is not a horror movie
10:27but it still has its fair share of chilling moments thanks in large part to sadistic prison
10:32officer percy wetmore when percy sabotages inmate edward delacroix's execution we all know what's
10:39about to happen when the switch is thrown but that doesn't make it any easier roll on two
10:47for over two and a half minutes the helpless delacroix convulses as electric current shoots
10:53through him as the people watching swarm the exit only to find the doors chained shut
11:01it's hard not to feel trapped with them forced to watch as delacroix's head explodes in blue flame
11:09call number eight the diner slaughter children of the corn
11:25for the locals at the diner in sleepy farming town gatlin nebraska it seems like a normal day
11:30but something wicked this way comes there's something particularly disturbing about creepy
11:36and isaac croner the 12 year old who convinces the children of gatlin to murder their parents
11:41as human sacrifices to a demon in the cornfields is pretty damn creepy as job one of the few good
11:47kids in the town looks on the adults who aren't poisoned first are cut to pieces by knives
11:52farm tools and of course a meat slicer that's when i saw malachi and the others
11:59i guess their meeting with isaac was over number seven the vampire in the window salem's lot
12:10according to stephen king's novels maine is a lot more than the pine tree state it's also
12:15the playground of vampires demons and invading aliens when ralph glick is kidnapped and turned
12:21into a vampire in salem's lot he returns home like a good kid to feast on his brother danny
12:27as ralph floats outside the window in billowing fog an entranced danny is glad to see him again
12:33and opens the window to let his little brother in not realizing he's about to join the ranks of the
12:39undead number six helpful neighbor 1408 but where is the bone chilling terror show me the rivers of
12:52blood professional skeptic mike enslin believes everything has a logical explanation but when
12:58he's trapped in a haunted hotel room he realizes he's in over his head
13:06luckily a man in the window opposite sees him gesturing for help
13:10but as the stranger mirrors his movements enslin realizes that the other man is himself
13:15ah
13:20he's completely trapped alone in a world he can't understand
13:24at the mercy of the same supernatural forces he spent his lifetime
13:28debunking and what's worse there's someone right behind him
13:33number five donna gets bitten kujo don't worry about it ma'am could you want to hurt him kujo
13:50is a friendly saint bernard until the bite of a rabid bat turns him into a raging monster
13:56trapped in her car in the baking hot sun with her frightened son tad
13:59donna steps out to see if it's safe to leave well we'll go ahead and ruin the surprise right now
14:04it's not
14:14kujo mauls donna's arm then launches himself into the car on top of her as her son screams in terror
14:21managing to beat the animal back donna is left wounded and much like the audience trembling in
14:27her seat
14:44it might be because we empathize with carrie so much that she also terrifies us we've seen the
14:49trauma she's been through and felt the anger building inside her her humiliation at prom
14:54is the last straw as the bullied and blood-soaked carrie unleashes her vengeance on the school
15:00students and staff flee for the doors but there's no escape from carrie's frenzied telekinetic rage
15:12seeing carrie reveal her supernatural powers to the world is a hair-raising
15:15skin-tingling kind of moment and the gut-wrenching moment
15:19sympathy turns into horror makes the scene as memorable as it is disturbing
15:37there's something off about the isolated overlook hotel maybe it's all the ghosts in the gold room
15:42or danny's vision of blood pouring from the elevator but the grady sisters probably also
15:47have something to do with it as danny rides his bike through the empty corridors he suddenly
15:52encounters two girls standing eerily still a vision reveals the awful truth the girls are dead
15:59hacked to death with an axe by their own father come play with us danny the reassurances of
16:05danny's imaginary friend tony don't really make the scene any less creepy remember what mr halloran
16:12said it's just like pictures in a book danny number two the hobbling misery i'm your number one fan
16:25in many of these moments it's the sense of utter helplessness that's really unnerving
16:29in misery romance novelist paul sheldon becomes the prisoner of obsessed fan annie wilkes there's
16:36something about the nurse's calm professional tone as she prepares to break his ankles that's
16:41especially chilling paul do you know about the early days of the kimberly diamond mines do you
16:46know what they did to the native workers who stole diamonds strapped to the bed he can only strain
16:52futilely as the block is laid and annie raises the sledgehammer the scene originally called for
16:57paul's whole foot to be chopped off but the crunch of those broken ankles might be even worse god i
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17:23number one georgie meets pennywise it what a nice pony do you want it back there are plenty of
17:31scares in both the original miniseries and the movie adaptation of it georgie's apparent return
17:36from the dead was the stuff of nightmares and that headless body walking down the stairs is certainly
17:41enough to chill the blood but there's something horribly real about georgie's first encounter with
17:46stranger danger as he walks the streets alone when he peers into a drain after his paper boat
17:52georgie meets the not-so-friendly neighborhood clown who strikes up a playful conversation
17:57then bites the boy's arm off take it georgie
18:07are there any other scenes that scared you let us know in the comments below
18:12tony i'm scared did you enjoy this video check out these other clips from watch mojo
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